Mazda 2.3 oil consumption
Discussion
I bought a 55 plate mazda 6 about a month ago. The other week I saw the oil light flicker and was horrified to find the level off the stick. I topped up and decided to keep a close eye on it. I have just checked and the oil level is just showing on the stick. According to the manual there is 0.75l between the top and bottom levels so it seems to be burning a litre a week or 360 miles which is ridiculous. No blue smoke so any ideas? Where is it all going?
Looking online people have been saying the PCV valve can fail but it is located under the inlet manifold?
isn't the red hose the PCV hose with presumably the valve in the cam cover end? essentially the PCV is just going to dump excess pressure an vapour in the intake so i cant see why there would be a need to have more than one hose running from low pressure oil to the inlet.
Looking online people have been saying the PCV valve can fail but it is located under the inlet manifold?
isn't the red hose the PCV hose with presumably the valve in the cam cover end? essentially the PCV is just going to dump excess pressure an vapour in the intake so i cant see why there would be a need to have more than one hose running from low pressure oil to the inlet.
Edited by Buzz word on Monday 15th November 20:59
This is getting mad now. I took it to a sponsored garage through the AA warranty. Told them it had no symptoms apart from massive oil loss. I said the internet said the PCV can often be faulty. The guy (manager) said there was no way that could be at fault as it had nothing to do with it.
In the three hours they had the car they told me it was low on oil and needed a service. All things I was aware of and that I would need to get it serviced to the log was up to date before it was eligible for the warranty. Seemingly this was a specialist car and they could not service it as it had to be logged on some online system so take it to mazda. Whilst it was there ask them as it could be anything and the car was so specialist not some escort. ffs its a Ford US engine and fitted to some European cars.
It's driving me nuts, they can put the most fancy oil in it they want I don't see how it will change a thing. it's just a waste of money as it will all be gone in a few weeks. They didn't even do a compression check on it they just started talking rings and how they wouldn't take the work on. So now I have to leave the car with mazda. All they have done is wound me up making me think it's rings.
In the three hours they had the car they told me it was low on oil and needed a service. All things I was aware of and that I would need to get it serviced to the log was up to date before it was eligible for the warranty. Seemingly this was a specialist car and they could not service it as it had to be logged on some online system so take it to mazda. Whilst it was there ask them as it could be anything and the car was so specialist not some escort. ffs its a Ford US engine and fitted to some European cars.
It's driving me nuts, they can put the most fancy oil in it they want I don't see how it will change a thing. it's just a waste of money as it will all be gone in a few weeks. They didn't even do a compression check on it they just started talking rings and how they wouldn't take the work on. So now I have to leave the car with mazda. All they have done is wound me up making me think it's rings.
Mate, in defence of the garage it really could be almost anything causing the oil usage !
For example:
My other car - a Toyota Avensis 1.8 T3-X Estate - started doing the same thing as your Mazda is doing, and it resulted in a new short block engine replacement...over £3.5k's worth of work !!! Under warranty I may add on a 6 year old car. (yeah yeah Toyota service is really bad according to the press hahah - don't believe everything you read)
Rich
ps. the oil light is not an "oil low" light, it's an "oil pressure low" light - can be a very different thing altogether. VERY few car have a specific low oil level warning light.
For example:
My other car - a Toyota Avensis 1.8 T3-X Estate - started doing the same thing as your Mazda is doing, and it resulted in a new short block engine replacement...over £3.5k's worth of work !!! Under warranty I may add on a 6 year old car. (yeah yeah Toyota service is really bad according to the press hahah - don't believe everything you read)
Rich
ps. the oil light is not an "oil low" light, it's an "oil pressure low" light - can be a very different thing altogether. VERY few car have a specific low oil level warning light.
Oh I agree it could be almost anything still but all they have done is panicked me into thinking it is at the bad end of the scale at the moment. I have to pay diagnosis costs anyway so I just don't see why they didn't pull the throttle to look into intake and check the PCV hoses while they are there, check the plugs, compression check, check the coolant for contamination see if the blow by is excessive. All fairly simple checks I could have probably done most of myself but money for them to check. I don't really want to get stuck in in-case I invalidate any part of the warranty.
I'm just worried about ending up on the short engine end of the scale at the moment. Also its costing me more not being able to get to work.
I'm just worried about ending up on the short engine end of the scale at the moment. Also its costing me more not being able to get to work.
Thankfully it is a dealer. I have been checking my rights. It seems I should have some recourse if the vehicle is not of satisfactory quality taking into consideration age and price. I think anyone would expect a 5 year old jap car on 48k not to be consuming more oil than an a two stroke trail bike.
Well I went to the garages again today and Mazda couldn't find anything but on questioning wanted to strip the engine. I said why not just do a compression check and all the non invasive checks before you start going big money? At least I know they didn't really look.
So back to the AA garage. They checked the oil and said it's full whats the problem do some miles and we will take it from there.
I thought fair enough I can see where they are coming from but I don't just see why it wont be gone in a week. Anyway I got home and thought 'sod this I'm getting the hump from people not doing the simple checks so I will'
So inlet...
Not too bad. Not the torrent I would expect if the PCV was at fault so on to the cylinders...
Cyl 3
Oh what's this oil on top of the head and all over the place but under the cam cover seal. It was also all over the coil pack and had formed a nasty crust.
Now IMO any oil under here can be due to a cam cover gasket failure. There are two features designed to stop oil spilling from careless topping up. The boss round the coil. The second is this:
A simple hole to drain any excess down the side of the head and away from the plugs. The whole reason being that oil allowed to pool will leak into the cylinders and burn away.
So next I pulled the plug to see if it was backed up. the plug was very loose and took no force to crack off.
So there is some corroberation, heavy deposits a sign the engine has been burning oil. crucially though not black and wet indicating rings were more likely.
Lets double check that...
About 9.5 bar. Sounds good to me.
Carrying on. All plugs were loose to some degree. Cyl 2 was the other really bad plug..
All coil boots were wet with 2+3 being worst to go with the plugs. All cylinders were 9+bar.
My diagnosis makes it look like cam cover gasket failure between cyl 2+ 3 between the cam shafts. It ponded and leaked into the cylinders. refitting the plugs may end up fixing it to be honest but for me this is a stage 1 fix. Get the cam cover gasket done. I suppose it could be stem seals as the pressure test wouldn't have checked that but pulling the inlet is far more invasive. I am pretty sure rings are out which pleases me as the compression is so good.
So back to the AA garage. They checked the oil and said it's full whats the problem do some miles and we will take it from there.
I thought fair enough I can see where they are coming from but I don't just see why it wont be gone in a week. Anyway I got home and thought 'sod this I'm getting the hump from people not doing the simple checks so I will'
So inlet...
Not too bad. Not the torrent I would expect if the PCV was at fault so on to the cylinders...
Cyl 3
Oh what's this oil on top of the head and all over the place but under the cam cover seal. It was also all over the coil pack and had formed a nasty crust.
Now IMO any oil under here can be due to a cam cover gasket failure. There are two features designed to stop oil spilling from careless topping up. The boss round the coil. The second is this:
A simple hole to drain any excess down the side of the head and away from the plugs. The whole reason being that oil allowed to pool will leak into the cylinders and burn away.
So next I pulled the plug to see if it was backed up. the plug was very loose and took no force to crack off.
So there is some corroberation, heavy deposits a sign the engine has been burning oil. crucially though not black and wet indicating rings were more likely.
Lets double check that...
About 9.5 bar. Sounds good to me.
Carrying on. All plugs were loose to some degree. Cyl 2 was the other really bad plug..
All coil boots were wet with 2+3 being worst to go with the plugs. All cylinders were 9+bar.
My diagnosis makes it look like cam cover gasket failure between cyl 2+ 3 between the cam shafts. It ponded and leaked into the cylinders. refitting the plugs may end up fixing it to be honest but for me this is a stage 1 fix. Get the cam cover gasket done. I suppose it could be stem seals as the pressure test wouldn't have checked that but pulling the inlet is far more invasive. I am pretty sure rings are out which pleases me as the compression is so good.
Edited by Buzz word on Friday 19th November 19:03
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